The 6 Most Frequently Quoted Brain Facts (That Are Total BS)

After millennia of research, experts still don't know very much about the human brain. As such, most of what you have picked up on the subject from pop culture is just laughably wrong. In fact, we'll bet you even heard some or all of these brain myths in school at some point ... #6. What you heard: It's the reason Homer Simpson gets stupider every season, and it's what your mom warned you about when you got caught sneaking a beer from dad's stash when you were 13: Every beer you drink kills something like a million brain cells and makes you permanently stupider. Getty"Goodbye, Algebra 2!" The truth: Let's get this out of the way now -- too much alcohol does a whole host of horrible shit to just about every organ in your body. Getty"Asleep" isn't the same as "brain damaged." The whole idea of alcohol destroying your brain actually dates back to the temperance movement in America, circa 1830. Plenty of people believed it -- it just seems like common sense that beer destroys the brain. #5. #4.
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MDMA Vault : MDMA Brain Scans Showing Neurotoxicity InvalidIn another blow to the US Government's credibility as drug information provider, the Johns Hopkins brain scans which have been used to 'prove' MDMA causes brain damage have been called flawed by independent researchers and editors of the magazine New Scientist.New Scientist challenges the ethics and reliability of science-for-politicsNew Scientist documents errors and data obfuscation in compromised reasearchToronto-based researcher Stephen Kish questions reliability of available PET scan dataOther top PET scan experts criticize the PET scan dataNIDA's credibility suffers once again Under the cover story "E is for Evidence", the British science-oriented magazine "New Scientist" published a set of articles and editorials related to this topic in April 2002, denouncing the use of the questionable scientific data in the war on ecstasy consumption. There are several articles in the New Scientist, but most of them can be found following the links below. Links News

6 Reasons The Guy Who's Fixing Your Computer Hates YouBy my calculations, about 96 percent of all computer repairs are done, not by the local computer guy or the Geek Squad, but by The Friend Who is Good With Computers. Often that friend is nothing more than an average computer user who knows how to look up error messages on Google, but it doesn't matter -- once they become known as TFWIGWC, they will get the call every time something goes wrong. And they will fix it, probably for free, because TFWIGWC pities you. Still, any time a bunch of TFWIGWCs get together and share their computer repair horror stories, you learn that there are certain things their "customers" do that make them want to ram their head through a wall. So, before I touch your computer, friend who may or may not do me a favor in return for this free repair job, here's what you should know: #6. This computer is yours. Photos.comThis is how it's gonna go down, chief. At this point I will drive over, again, imagining myself slamming the owner's dick in his own laptop. #5. #4.

6 Things You Won't Believe Animals Do Just Like UsBeing a human is a pretty sweet gig, all things considered. We've got opposable thumbs so dexterous they could start their own Cirque du Soleil troupe and brains so ripped our skulls can barely contain them. But before you grab your dog and give him a triumphant "IN YOUR (FAITHFUL, ADORABLE) FACE!" you should know that some of the traits and behaviors that make us human are also demonstrated by other animals. Animals that apparently think they're people. #6. What to name a baby is one of the first things that expecting parents obsess about. GettyAll babies look alike, even Theobold Pimpmeister here. And more than that, individual names also make humans special. "Never mind, Christine. Except the talking animals depicted in Disney movies aren't so far off the mark, at least when it comes to a few select species. Wait, what? Dolphins, crows, primates and parrots have all been observed using unique calls when they want the attention of specific members of their groups. Getty"GWAAK! Getty"Hi!

The 5 Most Depraved Sex Scenes Implied by 'Harry Potter'The Harry Potter series has sold billions of dollars worth of books, movie tickets and DVDs because it's one of those rare series that children can enjoy but won't make adults want to gouge out their eyes. Author J.K. Rowling had a way of throwing a bone to the grown-ups here and there by slipping in sly little adult references along the way. It's usually done in subtext (like the elderly wizard Dumbledore's homosexual relationship with the male wizard Grindelwald), but sometimes it's right there in the open for anyone perceptive enough to get it. And sometimes, that shit gets nasty. #5. Via Wikimedia Commons Dolores Umbridge is perhaps the one person in the whole Harry Potter universe who is virtually impossible to like, no matter what angle you choose to piss on her from. Via Hp-lexicon.orgShe's like Mussolini and your nosy old neighbor, all rolled into one. Well, unless you count the part where she is abducted and gang raped by centaurs in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. #4.

Speaking More Than One Language May Slow The Aging Process In The MindChildren who speak a second or third language may have an unexpected advantage later in life, a new Tel Aviv University study has found. Knowing and speaking many languages may protect the brain against the effects of aging. Dr. However, Kavé says that one should approach these findings with caution. Exercising the Brain A person who speaks more languages is likely to be more clear-minded at an older age, she says, in effect “exercising” his or her brain more than those who are monolingual. The research was based on a survey taken in 1989 on people between the ages of 75 and 95. Analyzing the results, the researchers found that the more languages a person spoke, the better his or her cognitive state was. A Matter of Words, Not Degrees Although the easiest way to explain the findings was to point out the relationship between higher education and number of languages, this was not the whole story. Dr. Use It or Lose It?

Home sweet messy home: How do consumers cope with disorder at home? -- ScienceDailyFrom hanging up our coats to organizing our bookshelves and kitchen cupboards, some people keep their homes tidy and others seem to live in complete chaos. According to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, understanding how we organize our homes can help us cope with contradictions and disruptions occurring in our daily lives. "Tidying a home is an activity that goes beyond moving objects from one place to another or putting them in specific places. Rather, it is a process of building a meaningful domestic environment. Through their tidying activities, people define symbolic borders and guides that constrain their daily activities and interactions," write authors Delphine Dion (Sorbonne Business School), Ouidade Sabri (Paris-Est University), and Valérie Guillard (University of Paris Dauphine). To understand how tidiness practices are developed, participants were asked to take photos of both organized and unorganized areas in their homes.

The 6 Biggest Badasses Who Lived As The Opposite SexThroughout history, men and women have disguised themselves as the opposite sex, some of them really really well, in a way that confuses and possibly arouses us. But among them are the truly amazing stories where their masquerade wasn't discovered with the dramatic removal of a hat with some slow motion hair tossing, but after some surprise genitals turn up in a post-mortem examination. They lived their whole lives, often convincing even their spouses that they were a different gender. How? Sometimes they were very clever, sometimes they were very hardcore and sometimes the people around them were very stupid. Billy Tipton was a jazz musician from the 30s through the 60s, and like most jazz musicians of that era, a partier and a womanizer. See? Born as Dorothy Tipton, she got into jazz in high school but was forbidden from joining the school band because girls weren't allowed. Penis Club membership kit. Incredibly, "he" got away with this through a long-term relationship with a girl.

6 Shockingly Affordable Sci-Fi Inventions#3. A Universal Translator VoxTec Price: $1,900 The fixer of many a plot hole, the universal translator is, in one way or another, a key element of pretty much every sci-fi movie released since the original Star Trek series. Voxtec Now, thanks to modern advancements, mankind has finally created a working universal translator. VoxTecNo matter how far you travel, you'll be able to prank call the locals. You just set it to the language of the person you're speaking to and its voice-recognition software figures out what you just said, drawing from a huge list of phrases in the other language (you can download up to 100,000 phrases), then broadcasts it to whoever you're conversing with. Combine the Phraselator with Wikipedia for slightly delayed omnipotence. #2. Vuzix Price: $1,899 Augmented reality, or AR for short, is in a way leaps and bounds beyond virtual reality; instead of just sticking your head inside a video game, AR technology blends the real world and digital objects in real time. #1.

The 5 Most Widely Believed WWII Facts (That Are Bullshit)They say history is written by the winners, but the truth is even stranger than that. In reality history is often written by popular opinion, or wishful thinking, or crass politics. That's why so much of what we hear about an event like World War II--whether from textbooks, movies or something you overheard a smart-sounding guy say--is just plain bullshit. #5. Claimed By: Hollywood, WWII-shooters, Cold War politics and chauvinists. Sixty years of World War II movies, and a decade of WWII video games, have made one thing clear: If it wasn't for America, you'd all be speaking German right now, baby! How America fights a two-front war. Why it's Bullshit: Because it's like thinking that while many X-Men contributed in their own special way, defeating Magneto really came down to Iceman. Cool party! There are two radically different histories of WW II, the one that was actually fought, and the one where the US kicked everyone's assess. World War II wasn't just a clever name. Cheerio, guv'na! #4. #3.

50 Ways To Boost Your Brain Power | 4 Mind 4 Life: Mental Health Tips1) Meditate — Meditation has been known to increase IQ, relieve stress, and promotes higher levels of brain functioning. Meditation also activates the “prefrontal cortex” of the brain, an area responsible for advanced thinking ability and performance. 2) Draw A Picture — Drawing stimulates the right-hemisphere of the brain and inspires creativity. Get out the colored pencils and begin drawing your way to a powerful brain. 3) Exercise — Long-term exercise has been proven to increase brain power and even create new neurons in the brain. 4) Brainwave Entrainment — Brainwave entrainment is a safe, innovative way to stimulate and shape the brain and it’s functioning. 5) Avoid Junk Food — Junk food has been proven to decrease energy in the body and promotes “brain fog.” 6) Deep Breathing — Deep breathing actually increases oxygen levels and blood-flow to the brain. 10-15 minutes of daily deep breathing can make a huge difference in the quality of your life and brain’s functioning potential.

Child refugees can be dogged by poor health for life - health - 27 June 2014It wasn't a good year. In 2013, 10.7 million people were displaced from their homes because of conflict or persecution, according to a report from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) released last week. This brought the worldwide total of refugees to 51.2 million, the first time since the second world war that the figure has surpassed 50 million. Children figure prominently in the UNHCR tally – half of the refugees are under the age of 18. For example, the Helsinki Birth Cohort Study is following more than 13,000 Finns, including people fostered as children in neighbouring countries during the 1939-40 and 1941-44 wars between Finland and the Soviet Union. It revealed that adults who had been evacuated as children had higher rates of coronary heart disease, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure than those who had remained. Height awareness Many of the adults were malnourished when they were refugees. Constant stress More From New Scientist